When we purchased our condo on Longboat Key, Florida, almost eighteen years ago, we were told that manatees are frequent visitors in the boat channel and in the shallows of Sarasota Bay. While it took some time to encounter those interesting sea mammals, we have surely seen dozens over the years. After our long absence due to the pandemic, it was a pleasure to observe a mother and her calf in the channel this morning (photo).
Manatees are common, permanent residents of South Florida but their numbers in the coastal bays tends to increase during the colder months, when they seek out the warmer, shallow waters. Feasting on sea grass, these "sea cows," more closely related to elephants, loll about in the shallows, their leathery backs breaking the surface; at other times, they hang in the water like moored blimps, intermittently raising their snouts to breathe.
Long threatened by boat traffic and water pollution, the manatee population might also be affected by rising sea temperatures. In either case, they, like all species of wildlife, are at the mercy of humans, which seem to be intent on destroying the planet.
